A Fifth Dimension:Naming conventions
This page is a list of guidelines for naming pages. The purpose of this page is to simplify the process of choosing a name for your new article. Here are a few general items to keep in mind: *An article's name should be simple and precise. Typically, the name of an article on A Fifth Dimension: The Twilight Zone Wiki should be the popular name or the name that is most commonly used by the majority of The Twilight Zone fans. *In a case where there may be multiple names, it is best to create redirect pages for each of the alternate names. For example: The second The Twilight Zone series was also known as The New Twilight Zone. In this case, a redirect page should be placed at The New Twilight Zone. *Try to remember, when writing an article, to form links to other articles (written or unwritten) by placing those names, words, and phrases that you feel are necessary within brackets . Like most guidelines, these are not absolute, but when doubt arises about how a page should be named, it's best to consult the convention. General conventions * Use common names. :* Use the most common name of the subject that does not conflict with the names of other articles. * Be precise. :* Articles with ambiguous names will likely create confusion for readers. :* See also: Disambiguation * Lowercase second and subsequent words. :*Unless the title of the article is a proper noun, all words except the first should be lowercase, not capitalized. :: For example: Use Time travel instead of Time Travel. :* See also: the Manual of Style for guidelines on the formatting of titles. :* Exception: An exception may be when certain prefixes are used, for example: a policy page like A Fifth Dimension:Cite your sources has "cite" capitalized because it is the start of the "actual" page name ("A Fifth Dimension:" is a prefix for all wiki-specific content like guidelines and policies). This is also true of and the "Template:" prefix. * Links are case-sensitive. :* The reason is evident in the following example: Shadow Play and Shadow play link to two different pages. This is why it is so important to verify that you are using the proper capitalization in your links. :* Exception: The first letter of a link may be lowercase because they link to the same page. This is why Alien and alien will direct you to the same article. Complicated constructs using pipe links (e.g., alien) are unnecessary in this case. This is true of templates as well. * Use singular nouns. :* Every article's name should be presented in a singular form. The rationale for this suggestion is that the more common use of an object in an article will likely be the singular form. Another factor is that the wiki software will allow you to append a suffix to the link, easily making most words plural (or showing possession for that matter) without the need for pipe links. :::For example: aliens yields aliens ... alien's yields alien's. :* Exception: This guideline will not apply to a subject that is generally always given in the plural form. (Examples: physics, scissors) * Avoid definite and indefinite articles as the first word. :* If the name of the article is not the title of a work, an official name, or another proper name, avoid the definite ("the") and indefinite ("a"/"an") articles at the beginning of a page name. * Redirect adjectives to nouns. :* Adjectives (such as American) should redirect to nouns (in this case, United States of America). * Use the gerund of verbs :* It is recommended that the gerund (the ''-ing'' form) be used. This means that an article named driving is preferable to one called drive. The plain form of the verb can be created as a redirect page to the gerund form. :* Exception: Do not use verbs for article titles if there is a more appropriate noun title. Existence is an example of such a "more common noun form" and would be more suitable as the article title than Existing or Exist. * Use spelled-out phrases, not acronyms. :* Avoid the use of abbreviations whenever possible, including acronyms, in page names. :* Exception: This does not apply to acronyms or abbreviations that are commonly thought of as words and better known in this form, such as NASA, laser, or sonar. * Don't create subpages in articles. :* Although the wiki engine accepts the slash ("/") character in article titles, refrain from using it to suggest a hierarchy of articles. For example, the episode should be given its own independent article by using or The Hunt, rather than The Twilight Zone (original series)/The Hunt. :* Note: Subpages are acceptable for somes uses in this wiki, such as user pages, portals, project pages, talk pages and templates, but not articles. * Avoid special characters. :* There are a number of characters—square brackets, curly braces, piping characters and quotation marks are a few—that are not accepted by the MediaWiki engine in article titles, such as:: :: " # $ * + < > = @ [ ] \ ^ ` { } | ~ Specific conventions * Story titles. If a story article (e.g., episode, segment, film, novel, issue, short story) has the same title as the subject it is about, you need to disambiguate, perhaps by adding an appropriate suffix, such as "(episode)" or "(short story)" to the title. ::For example: "Escape Clause (episode)" or "Quarantine (segment)" :* Note: If you use to link segments, it automatically adds "(segment)", automatically adds "(short story)" and automatically adds "(film segment)". * Species names. Always use the name of an alien species in singular form (e.g. Venusian, not Venusians). Any suggestions for other specific conventions to be added to the list should be brought up on the talk page. Category:A Fifth Dimension Guidelines